The Unbelievable Uncle Stu

Uncle Stu has been staying with us for the last six weeks, using our home as a base of operations as he situates himself in his new home. Six weeks is a long time, but only for poor Stu stuck in suburbia, for us it was easy to have him around. Uncle Stu, you are awesome in so many ways...

You're always up for a park picnic playdate.

You make an excellent morning resting place (and Zoe loves you above all others)


You make excellent (homemade, not Bisquik) pancake people.


You'll even give up watching Kentucky basketball for an afternoon of black light indoor miniature golf.

You trust this little girl with your iPhone,

...are excellent at fixing little girls' hair

and download princess games on your iPhone making it even more desirable.

And you spent hour upon hour designing the next edition of the blog book

a creative effort that we will have for years and years,
cementing our family memories in a beautiful hardback book.

Not to mention all the times you got up with the baby (when you had to share the same room with Jack over Christmas) and rocked him back to sleep (without waking me), and told me to "go shopping, have fun!" while you took the girls to the bounce house, and borrowed my car to run an errand and had it cleaned before bringing it back, and cooked dinner and washed the breakfast dishes and everything else!

Baby brother it was awesome to have you around, we'll miss you but are so excited that you and Jen are relocating to San Francisco (just a four hour drive away) now that your European adventure has come to an end. We'll get to see you so much more!!!

Back to Bloggin'

I don't know what it is about this month...but every January there is a bloggy lull. Maybe it's the difficulty of getting back into routine after such a busy and delicious holiday, or the sickness that always plagues our home around this time, or the massive NEA deadline that haunts the third week of the month. Maybe I'm just embracing the simplicity and blankness of the winter days and enjoying having nothing to say. I'm not sure the reason, but this blog is too quiet and I need to get it started again. Getting started again is the hardest part and we've got alot to catch up on before we can move forward.

At the beginning of the month, Yiayia and Poppop traveled around the Central Coast looking for places to retire. They are not sure where exactly they would like to settle down, after they sell their homes in snowy New York, but plan on living and renting in Bakersfield while taking weekend excursions to the Coast.

Which means we'll see alot more of these faces next year!

With just a a day or two in between to refresh the guest bedroom, MorMor flew in for a post-holiday visit. First stop was Fun Friday at Athena's school.

I informed Athena's teacher that MorMor was an artist so she was given the complicated project which involved painting little hands gold and cutting out heart shapes...whereas I was given the sticker activity.
Back at home even more art projects were enjoyed. MorMor has found a kindred spirit in Athena. Athena is not the type of child to sit still or really focus on something for a long period of time, unless it is art, then she can sit for hours.

Also in January we spent a day with very special friends from Kentucky who are on an amazing journey with their three little girls. I love this family and am so in awe of their remarkable adventure. Jill captured some great moments from our day. And totally understood how it was possible to bring one of your children to the park without shoes, and still be okay with it because two out of three of your children were fully clothed. It was beyond great to spend time with people who just get you...I hope their travels will find them back in this area again sometime!

Immediately after our shoeless park incident, and hopefully not related, little Dude was diagnosed with a double ear infection and bronchitis. His lungs were so funky and congested that he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his blood. His pediatrician prescribed an immediate nebulizer treatment in the office, which frankly was really scary, and then sent us home with our own nebulizer, requiring four treatments a day for a week. There will be no pictures of our little dude with his tiny oxygen emitting vapor because it would break his grandmothers heart. It was a rough week, we were concerned that it might be asthma related to the new kitty in our family, but thankfully it cleared up and his lungs are perfect again.

I took 312 pictures in January. This is one of them.

And here's another. 312 is nothing compare to the 1,200+ from the month before.

Still the chaos continues and the days tick by. Time is slipping away and I will get back to blogging if only to staple a few moments onto a virtual wall before they are lost forever.

Be back soon!